Table of contents for 8th Edition in Raspberry Pi for Beginners

Since 2012, the Raspberry Pi has revolutionised home computing around the world, providing people with a portable, affordable and incredibly versatile piece of tech to do with as they see fit. Now available in a variety of flavours, from the tiny Pi Zero to the powerful Pi 3 Model B, the mini computer’s popularity shows no signs of slowing. For those looking to try their hand at coding and custom computing for the first time, Raspberry Pi for Beginners will help you select the ideal model for your needs, set up your new device and take your first steps in this exciting new world. Once you have mastered the basics, we even provide plenty of fun projects to sink your teeth into, as well as offering guidance on Python and…

The Raspberry Pi has captured the hearts and imaginations of people since its launch in 2012. There’s rarely a day gone by where we haven’t heard of some wonderful hardware or software project from the ever-growing community of Raspberry Pi enthusiasts. Just looking through the pages of this book will show you what can be done. The potential for the Raspberry Pi’s achievements are limited only by the users’_imagination. However, it’s not just the hardware that’s worthy of consideration. The Raspberry Pi is capable of running a variety of different Linux operating systems. These – known as distributions, or distro for short – are as varied as the many Raspberry Pi projects, and each offers a different look and feel, as well as different functionality. Let’s take a look at…

The Raspberry Pi Model A is the budget version of the Raspberry Pi – the fabled $25 board that was part of the original promise. This version, the Model A+, is the successor to the original Model A and also slightly cheaper at $20 in the US and about £13 in the UK. The Model A has fewer ports to connect devices to. Just a quick look and comparison to the Model B+ will show that it has fewer USB ports and no Ethernet port. It’s also now much smaller than the B, giving you a benefit over the B aside from price. While the Model A+ can do everything the Raspberry Pi can, albeit with the help of a few USB hubs, it’s aimed a little more at the…

In order to get the very best experience from your Raspberry Pi, you’re going to have to get hold of a few extras on top of the actual Raspberry Pi itself. For example, you’re going to need a keyboard and mouse with which to enter commands and navigate with. Also, an SD card on which to store the operating system. There’s also power in some form or another, maybe even a USB hub so you can attach more USB devices. Perhaps you’ll need a Wi-Fi adapter of some description, or maybe just a length of network cable. Then there’s the basic electronics side of the Raspberry Pi, what would you need to start some of the beginner electronics and control experiments? Clearly, there’s more to the Raspberry Pi than you…

Resources Raspberry Pi downloads www.raspberrypi.org/downloads With its small size and cheap price, many people might be fooled into thinking that the Raspberry Pi is only usable for basic tasks, and learning to program on. While one of the primary goals of the Pi was to increase computer literacy at a lower level rather than just learning how to create Excel spreadsheets, the Pi has many other great uses. As the Raspberry Pi is essentially a mini PC, with an HDMI and analog TV output, rather than a traditional monitor connection, it can perform many common tasks that a laptop or desktop is often used for. While it doesn’t really have the processing power or RAM to run the latest version of Windows, there are other options. There are a wealth…

One of the must impressive aspects of the Raspberry Pi is that it’s incredibly easy to turn your small, inexpensive Pi into a fully fledged desktop computer very easily. There are plenty of different ways in which you can achieve this, but one popular route is to install ArchLinux. ArchLinux is a complete but lightweight distribution that includes only the parts you really need. This helps keep it running smooth on the Pi’s relatively modest hardware. Any extra components you then need can be added manually at a later date. Launched in 2002, the primary goal of the Arch development team was to focus on simplicity, in contrast to say the Ubuntu team who focus highly on usability and being fully featured from the initial installation. Its easy to install…

The easiest way to get online is to buy a Raspberry Pi model that comes with an RJ45 Ethernet socket. The Model A not only lacks the Ethernet port, but is handicapped by only having one USB port. That means you will have to buy a power USB hub in order to get online. Back to the Model B/B+ though and to get online, simply plug an Ethernet cable into the socket on the Pi and connect it to a similar port on the back of your internet modem/router. Turn your Pi on and launch the desktop, then double-click on Midori and you should see the internet appear (main image). To check that it’s working, look at the lights on the Pi itself. The red power light should on. Above…

With the Pi Store essentially being left to languish and few people contributing, where are the new resources being hosted? Easy – the official Raspberry Pi website! The Raspberry Pi Foundation is now actively creating and curating a collection of high-quality resources specifically designed to get you off the ground when you're first setting up, and then to inspire and educate you as you go forward in your journey to master the Pi and the underlying Linux technology. Go to raspberrypi.org/ resources and then choose Learn or Make to find some excellent resources. IT teachers will want to check out the Teach page to find lesson plans and more.…

The Raspbian repository contains over 35,000 freely available software packages. These range from small software components to full applications. In fact, the entire Raspbian operating system itself is made out of these packages. To make this clearer, let’s try an example. You’ve probably tried Midori, the open source web browser that comes with Raspbian. Although we may think of Midori as a single application, it is actually made up of a collection of smaller components. If one package requires other packages to work, the latter are called ‘dependencies’. You can list the dependencies of Midori by typing apt-cache depends midori into the terminal (Accessories>LXTerminal from the program launcher). As you can see from the output (Fig 1), Midori depends on nearly 20 other packages to work. However, don’t worry about…

Resources Raspbian: www.raspbian.org There is a configuration tool that comes with the Raspbian OS. Anyone who installed Raspbian themselves will have seen this once before – the ‘RasPi-config’ tool allows configuration of your system that would otherwise be trickier in the Linux environment. Tasks such as setting the date and time or regional settings for your keyboard are often done in a command-line interface with no dialogs, no additional help – for a new user, this is a nightmare. There are some further specifics for the Pi and Raspbian itself, such as being able to easily enable overscan for your TV; change the split of memory to the computer/graphics card to steer performance in direction or even overclock your system to make it a little faster; enable remote SSH access…

Resources LibreOffice: Installed through tutorial using apt-get Common tasks when using any computer are word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. This is well within the scope of the Raspberry Pi. Raspbian comes bundled with a couple of text editors which are fine for making simple notes. However, as soon as you come to creating actual documents and want any kind of formatting or pictures inside them, these editors really aren’t up to the task and so you’ll want to move to something new. The best way to get round this is to install another application – or, as is the case here, a full office suite! This is really easy on the Pi and the best option available is open source and completely free: LibreOffice. Installing it couldn’t be much easier…

Resources Raspbian: www.raspbian.org With its diminutive size, the Pi makes a great portable computer; just pop it in a bag and plug it in to any TV or projector with an HDMI port. One reason people carry personal computers around with them is for basic wordprocessing. Of course, the Pi with Raspbian shines at this, as it has access to hundreds of software packages via APT (Advance Packaging Tool). Once you have finished working on your latest novel, shopping list, or presentation, there’s a good chance you’ll want to print it. Thankfully setting up printing in Raspbian is straightforward, even if it’s not quite plug ’n’ play like it can be within Windows or OSX. This guide will take you through all of the steps needed to install a printer…

Resources Raspberry Pi (all models suitable) If you’re worried about the somewhat Orwellian notion of a forced disclosure of passwords, this project posits a rather radical solution to the dilemma by creating a second password for your user account, which, instead of logging you in, will nuke your home folder using special tools. While this is simple to set up, do make sure to back up your personal data to a safe place before going ahead with this project. Also bear in mind that it’s not an infallible method, as anyone with physical access to your machine may seize it before you have a chance to flip this kill switch. Hidden extras In addition to the srm command in the nuke script, which securely erases the home folder, you may…

Resources Raspberry Pi Four jumper jerky wires (female to female) Design Spark tilt switch A tilt switch is a component capable of sensing a change in orientation in four different directions: up, down, left and right. The tilt switch from Design Spark makes it easy to incorporate this sensor into your projects by breaking the necessary pins out to standard 0.1” spaced headers. The board works at either 3.3 or 5 volts making it perfect for use with a Raspberry Pi. You can use it to orientate a robot, checking to see if it has fallen over, or how about embedding it within a box to check that it is facing the correct way up? Although not originally designed for the Raspberry Pi, this tutorial shows you how to set…

Resources Raspbian: www.raspberrypi.org A web-connected device: Tablet or smartphone Music Player Daemon (MPD) is a piece of software that acts as both a music player and a music server, which is handy. It is capable of outputting audio to any sound card that is connected to the system, and be controlled by an MPD client. Clients are available for almost any platform, including iOS and Android. MPD is also able to output audio to a stream, which can then be used by most clients. This is really great for people who have rather large music libraries and cannot fit them all on their device. 01: Install the required software Log into the Raspbian system with the username pi and the password raspberry. First, find the IP address of the Pi…

Soldering is an essential skill in electronic construction, and while it’s not difficult, it’s unlikely you’ll have success without guidance. Unless you know what you’re doing, you could fail to make soldered joints at all, or solder a larger area than intended, making unintended electrical connections, or you could make a dry joint. Here we guide you through the basic steps and we suggest you try this out to get some practice before building a real circuit. Understanding circuit diagrams 01: Warm up your soldering iron Before you can do anything with your soldering iron it needs to be warmed up to its correct operating temperature so turn it on and wait. Resist the temptation to check whether it’s hot enough with your fingers (it’ll hurt) and you’ll find it’s…

The aim of this tutorial is to use the Pen tool in Scratch to develop a more useful drawing application that you can then expand on yourself. It uses only the sprites that are bundled with the installation on the Pi but you could easily make some custom ones to generate the colour changes. In fact, one possibility is to have a colour palette and use this to select colours from. At the moment, this uses four sprites to make the colour selection from. All you have to do is move the pencil cursor over the colour sprite for it to start using that colour. Then simply click and draw. Any time the colour is changed a sound is played to let you know. Pressing up or down on the…

We’re going to be remaking the classic game Pong. To do this, we’ll be using a Python module called Pygame, which is great, as it allows the programmer to create 2D games without having to worry about things such as rendering the graphics in too much detail. The main portion of the code will be that which makes up the game’s structure and logic. Pong is an ideal game through which to introduce the principles behind game development, as it is fairly simple, which makes it much easier to understand what’s going on. This also means that it requires less code, making it ideal for those just starting out in programming. Getting started 01: Create a file The first step, of course, is to start up our development environment, which…

We’ve all been there. We’ve come back to something, and for whatever reason, the thing we’re trying to do just won’t work! We’ve plugged everything back in where we thought it came from, but there’s nothing. So, what do we do when it comes to this? Usually there are a few different solutions to any one problem – but sometimes there’s only one way, and finding that one key to victory might not be all that easy. Maybe you’ve come back to your Pi after several months of it being sat in a drawer. You plug it in and boot it up and… X, Y or Z has happened! What can we try when it just seems that everything has completely fallen over and nothing will work? Well, hopefully your…

Apt-get To install or update software manually, you may sometimes find yourself using the apt-get command. It’s part of aptitude, the package manager for Raspbian and some other Raspberry Pi operating systems. Arch Linux Arch Linux is a Linux distribution that is light on system resources and encourages development from its involved community. However, unlike other distros, its focus is simplicity from a developer point of view, not from the end-user. While highly customisable, it can be tricky for novices. Arduino A lot of people like to use their Raspberry Pi in conjunction with an Arduino. It’s a board that allows you to easily power motors and lights and other physical objects that can make use of computers ARM The Raspberry Pi uses an ARM chip. ARM is one of…

The Raspberry Pi sprang out of a desire by colleagues at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory to see a return to the days of kids programming inexpensive computers. The rise of expensive PCs and games consoles put paid to the BBC Micro, Spectrum and Commodore 64 generation of home programmers, leading to applicants for computer studies courses lacking the necessary skills. After spending a few years designing prototypes, Eben Upton, formerly of the University but now working as a chip designer for Broadcom, joined forces with his old university colleagues, Pete Lomas of hardware design company Norcott Technologies and David Braben, co-author of classic BBC Micro game Elite, to form the Raspberry Foundation. Three years later, the Raspberry Pi went into mass production with the Model B (main image),…

The Raspberry Pi family has certainly grown over the last few years and currently there are five devices to pay attention to: the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, the Raspberry Pi Models A+ and B+, the Raspberry Pi Compute Module and the Raspberry Pi Zero. Anything older than that – i.e. the original Models A and B – are now ancient history. Most of you will want to use the Pi 2, which is the direct successor to the Model B+ (covered overleaf). As for the rest? In a nutshell: the Compute Module is for experienced engineers; the A+ (overleaf) is for anyone wanting to build small, embedded projects; the B+ is still a valid board, but if you are looking to buy then go straight for the Pi 2;…

Since its release in 2013 the Raspberry Pi has become the UK’s bestselling computer. It was originally created with the intention of promoting the teaching of computer science, facilitated through a device that was affordable, accessible and fun to use. It was incredibly successful and adopted by many businesses, educational institutions, hackers and tinkerers alike. Raspberry Pi like to push the boundaries and at the back end of November 2015 they launched their newest model, the Pi Zero. This ground breaking model is a stripped down version smaller in size than the A+ model. Yet it is three times faster than the original 2013 model. You can still run the same Pi images and software such as Sonic Pi, Minecraft, Open Office. At the heart is the on-board ARM Single-core…

While it looks daunting, setting up the Raspberry Pi for day-to-day use is actually very simple. Like a TV or a normal computer, only certain cables will fit into the specific slots, and the main job really is making sure you’ve got plugged in what you need at any one time. The Raspberry Pi itself doesn’t label much of the board. However, most good cases will do that for you anyway – if you decide to invest in one.…

As soon as the Raspberry Pi was announced, there was great excitement among the developer community as to what could be possible with the inexpensive computer. There have been lightweight versions of popular Linux distributions before, and it wasn’t long until early builds of Pi-compatible Debian were released to the public. The most popular and well supported is Raspbian – it has long been the official Raspberry Pi distro. Raspbian supports many of the most popular software packages and is a great all-in-one desktop solution for your Pi. Regularly updated and maintained, it offers decent performance while still being fully featured. This guide will take you through the steps of installing Raspbian on your Pi by using a Windows 10 machine to prepare the SD card, but it’s possible on…

With the Raspberry Pi 2 came the ARMv7 core – replacing the ARMv6 core used in the preceding models – and due to this the most popular Linux distribution of them all finally came within reach of the humble Pi: Ubuntu. One of the more popular spins of Ubuntu is Ubuntu MATE – basically, Ubuntu with the MATE desktop environment installed, rather than the default Unity desktop. MATE is far more familiar to those who have come from Windows and OS X than Unity, and is of course an excellent desktop in its own right. The Ubuntu MATE developers worked hard to port their Ubuntu spin to the Raspberry Pi 2, and now you can enjoy a desktop-class operating system on your single-board computer. Programs like LibreOffice are blazing fast…

Getting online is very handy for downloading new software, tutorials and resources, but you’re also going to want to browse the internet as well. The standard browser for this is Epiphany and there’s an icon on the quick launch bar to enable you to run it with ease – just double-click on it to get started. You can also run Epiphany by going to the menu under Internet, where there’s an option to run Epiphany in Private Browsing mode. On top of this, you also have the NetSurf and Dillo browsers as alternative choices. The latter is very quick because it doesn’t load images by default, but then it doesn’t render pages properly either. One of the best alternative options for web browsing isn’t actually installed, but it is available.…

As we've said a few times, the Raspberry Pi is a Linux-based computer. From a software point of view, this means that you can run Linux programs on your Raspberry Pi – you don't need special Pi-only versions; all you need to do is check the software requirements and make sure that you meet the minimum recommended specifications. For most Linux programs, this shouldn't be too much of a problem because, unlike Windows and Mac software, they tend to be much lighter on resources. With the Raspberry Pi 2, you certainly shouldn't have anything to worry about. Open source software is fantastic, and for every proprietary program (such as Microsoft Word or Google Chrome) there is a free/libre equivalent that is often much less resource-intensive (such as LibreOffice Writer or…

Resources Apt command help page: linux.die.net/man/8/apt Apt-get help page: manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/ lucid/man8/apt-get.8.html On its own, the Raspberry Pi is a near-perfect mini computer. It already contains a wealth of educational software, a few games, some programming utilities and a number of system tools. But, as with most computers, this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. By installing more programs, you can turn your Pi into a fully functioning desktop computer, a networked connected server, a games server, a retro games machine, or even a state-of-the-art media centre. These programs, known as packages, are as wide and as varied as the developers who originally designed them. In Linux, if there’s a need for a particular program, then someone develops one. They then put it out to the world and make…

Resources RaspBMC: www.raspbmc.com gThumb: www.gthumb.com One of the things you might fancy using your Raspberry Pi for is some sort of portable projector. We don’t mean a projector in the sense of strapping a bulb and a bunch of fancy electronics onto it (although trust us – it’s been done!). We’re thinking more along the lines of a portable computer with a memory card big enough for a couple of hundred pictures – maybe your all-time favourites, maybe some of the last family holiday or the new dog; whatever you want to show. The Pi being as small as it is, clearly this is a pretty handy way to carry something around with you that’s got a little more scope than passing the family iPad around. We’re talking about being…

Resources The Pi Store: www.store.raspberrypi.com/projects Although the Raspberry Pi may be small on resources, it has just enough under the hood to enable us to enjoy some great gaming. Naturally it won’t be able to play the latest triple A-rated titles; the likes of Assassin’s Creed 4 are well and truly beyond its capabilities. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t play some endearing games from a wealth of genres. Indeed, the Linux community of developers and clever coders have spent years giving us access to many a free game which is just as addictive as the latest and greatest on offer. The trick of course is to know how to get those games onto the Raspberry Pi, and where to look for them in the first place. Thankfully, that’s the…

Resources Raspberry Pi 2 Raspbian: raspberrypi.org/downloads Keyboard Mouse Wireless dongle Monitor Case Powered USB hub (optional) T he Raspberry Pi 2’s increased power over its predecessor is well-documented by now. More CPU cores and more RAM making it six times faster is an impressive number, and you can see the actual changes that it makes to the experience. This power actually enables you to conduct a very simple project that was just out of reach for the original Raspberry Pi: a Raspberry Pi desktop PC. All the components for it were available, but the Pi was just a little too slow to properly give a fluid desktop experience. Now, with the improved resources, many of the previous restrictions are gone – enough of them to be able to build a…

Resources Raspberry Pi: V2B recommended, V1B possible Decent quality Micro USB power supply Cardreader + MicroSD Card Compatible USB Ethernet adapter: i-tec-europe.eu/?t=3&v=296 Ethernet switch: Optional, but recommended Controlling the interconnects between various devices is paramount to keeping systems secure and safe. Sadly, most router operating systems are closed source – finding vulnerabilities in them is difficult to impossible. Running dedicated open-source router operating systems is not a solution for the average user, as they tend to demand high-end hardware with prohibitively high prices. OpenWRT is an affordable and efficient alternative. It foregoes some of the complexities found in traditional router operating systems, thereby allowing for lower hardware requirements. The community has ported the system to various routers: with a little care, a compatible router can be found for £100 or…

Resources AA battery box bit.ly/1FDiJGa 3-Amp UBEC bit.ly/1HLKih7 3-Amp terminal strip 6x AA rechargeable batteries Your Raspberry Pi’s mobility is usually restricted by the length of the power lead. Rather than limiting it to your desk or living room, however, you can use it for mobile projects as diverse as launching it into near-Earth orbit or monitoring and automating your garden. Of course, in order to carry out such functions, you will need to find an alternative power source by adding batteries. Don't worry, adding battery power to your Raspberry Pi is simpler than you might have imagined; the place to start is by attaching a battery pack. All that is required to complete this renovation are six rechargeable AA batteries (or single-charge alkaline), a battery box with space for…

Resources Raspberry Pi Pimoroni Enviro pHAT P imoroni makes a wide range of HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) boards for the Raspberry Pi. These boards are designed to be fully compatible with all Raspberry Pi models. Enter the Pi Zero, a super-slim, supercheap, $4 version of the Pi. In response, Pimoroni created a range of HATs that fit the Pi Zero, called pHATs. This tutorial focuses on the Enviro pHAT, a nifty little board that packs in four different sensors that let you measure temperature, pressure, light levels, colour, acceleration, take a compass heading and retrieve readings from analog inputs. This creates up to ten different variables, making it ideal for monitoring conditions in your house, garage or garden. This tutorial will walk you through the initial install and setup…

Would you like to delve into the world of animation and game creation? Do you want to bring your creative ideas to life without learning a software development language? With Scratch you can do all this, and much more. Scratch 1.4 is installed on the official ’wheezy’ Raspbian operating system image. If your Raspberry Pi doesn’t already have Scratch installed don’t worry, just hop on over to the official MIT Scratch website (http://scratch.mit.edu/scratch_1.4) to find the download and install instructions. To begin all we need to do is open the Scratch Studio. Click on Scratch’s cat-icon on the desktop, or find the Scratch in the LXDE desktop menu. The Scratch Studio is a complete development environment. It’s divided up into a number of separate panels. Each panel has a specific…

Here, we will create a version of the classic Snake game where you move the snake around the Scratch stage using the arrow keys. You control the head of the snake and must avoid a collision with either the body of the snake or the edge of the stage. The snake body grows longer each time you eat an egg. You get points added to your score for eating good yellow eggs and lose points for eating bad black eggs. There are also bonus sprites to eat for extra points. By following this tutorial you will learn to create your own simple sprite graphics, send and receive broadcast events, use a list variable to store data, play sound effects, generate random numbers and use sensing commands to detect when a…

Python is a great programming language for both beginners and experts. It is designed with code readability in mind, making it an excellent choice for beginners who are still getting used to various programming concepts. The language is popular and has plenty of libraries available, allowing programmers to get a lot done with relatively little code. You can make all kinds of applications in Python: you could use the Pygame framework to write simple 2D games, you could use the GTK libraries to create a windowed application, or you could try something a little more ambitious like an app such as creating one using Python’s Bluetooth and Input libraries to capture the input from a USB keyboard and relay the input events to an Android phone. For this tutorial we’re…

We are going to add in a very basic function called reflectVector, which will invert the y component of vector, by putting a negative sign in front of it. Think of it as having a vertical mirror where the ball bounces so the angle is reflected in the mirror. The reflectVector function looks like the screen to the right. All it is doing is getting the current x value, getting the current y value and making it negative, and then setting the same x and new inverted y value to become the new vector of the ball. We are also going to make a function called batCollisionTest, which will be called twice from the game loop, passing a different bat in each time. This uses the Rect.colliderect function of Pygame,…

Software can be just as much of a pain as hardware. The problem with software, however, is that different configuration options can lead to a really bad, frustrating time. Hardware we have attached can affect the configuration of our system and lead to further issues – sometimes the only way to go is from the ground up. You have got to think logically about these things. Some problems will seem to have little to no correlation with their answers, but those scratchyour- head moments soon go when you realise that actually the thing is working and doing exactly what you wanted it to again. There’s a lot you can do from the command line to help with any of this stuff, but things aren’t always as clear as they seem.…

Linux is the operating system (OS) used for your Raspberry Pi. Its role is exactly the same as Windows, OS X on the Mac, Android (in fact, Android is based on the Linux kernel), iOS or any other OS you care to mention. That role is to provide a platform for everything else to run on. It talks to the hardware and it talks to you, the user. But what makes Linux different to any other OS out there? Well, for a start it’s free (more about that later), immensely powerful, highly customisable and the best bit is it’s been created for users by users. However to call Linux ‘an operating system’ is a bit of a misnomer. It’s not ‘one operating system’ in the same way that Windows 10…

Although the Raspberry Pi has many operating systems that are compatible and configured for use with its hardware, there are some which the users of the Raspberry Pi have clamoured for since its arrival. Many of these have since been absorbed into NOOBS or linked directly from the official Raspberry Pi website – things like Ubuntu MATE, Fedora, media centre distros like OSMC. There are far more operating systems for your Pi than just these, though. There is a well-maintained list of them over on the eLinux wiki page (elinux.org). Two which have proven particularly problematic are Android, which is the operating system used on smartphones and tablets, and Chromium OS, the development operating system forming the base of Chrome OS, which powers Google Chromebooks. There are examples of each…

Launched on the day of the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s fourth birthday – or first birthday, given that it was a leap day – the Raspberry Pi 3 is easy to dismiss at first glance. Its layout is near-identical to the Raspberry Pi 2 before it, but the presence of a small chip at the upper-left provides the first hint that things have changed. The Pi 3 is the first Raspberry Pi to feature integrated wireless connectivity, and the Foundation hasn’t done things by halves. The BCM43438 radio chip on the underside of the board provides 802.11bgn Wi-Fi – albeit in the 2.4GHz channels only – alongside both Bluetooth 4.1 Classic and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). All this is routed to the tiny chip antenna on the top of the board,…

Before we begin anything, let’s make sure we’ve ticked off everything on our checklist. You’ll need: a Raspberry Pi (Model B), compatible SD card, micro USB cable/ charger, network cable, HDMI cable, compatible TV, USB keyboard and mouse. You can also use the analogue TV out, but HDMI is highly recommended. We’ll be focusing on the most common and useful configuration for new users; a combination of the Raspbian Linux distribution (also known as ’wheezy’) with an HDMI output from an existing Windows PC. Starting with the OS download we’ll walk through creating the image on your SD card, connecting the peripherals and the installation process. After that we’ll walk through the Raspberry Pi Config Tool options. We’ll expand your SD card partition to fill the full card allowing you…

While many Linux distributions are based on Debian, there are plenty of others with different goals and aims. One great alternative is Fedora, which has fast release cycles with relatively short support terms, so new features are added regularly. There is a Raspberry Pi-specific remix available, known simply as Pidora. Pidora incorporates some of the hardware acceleration features that Raspbian has, so performance is good while still being a complete desktop solution. So why would you use Pidora over Raspbian? Firstly, Pidora offers a different desktop environment, the lightweight Xfce, whereas Raspbian uses LXDE. Both have their merits but depending on your requirements, one may suit over the other. The other difference is the packages and package manager used to install software: Raspbian uses Apt, while Pidora uses YUM. In…

Icons You can add apps to the desktop for easier access. To run the associated app, simply doubleclick on the icon. The icons can be moved and dropped into other locations. Click, hold and drag to move them. There are icons for a variety of tasks – from apps such as Python and Scratch for programming, to Empathy for web browsing, LXTerminal for issuing commands to the system directly, educational software like Wolfram Alpha and the Mathematica, to reference materials. Icons can be renamed or even deleted if you don’t want them on the desktop any more. Menu bar Just like Windows’ Start menu, click in the corner to bring up a menu of programs and options. The main categories include accessories, apps for educational use, graphics, internet, programming, a…

Launched in 2012, the Pi Store aims to provide a hub for both professional and amateur developers who want to make their software available for the Pi. The service was created by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in co-operation with companies IndieCity and Velocix. It’s possible to browse the Store and log in as either a customer or a developer using your web browser. While there used to be a client program available to download straight onto your Pi, this has sadly been removed as the popularity of the Pi Store has dwindled. Most of the items on the Pi Store are free or low priced, and it’s clear that the developers of the site originally hoped to build a thriving community. In particular, they emphasised that they would like to…

Resources LXPlayer: Linked in article – obtained through apt-get So finally you’ve got your Pi all set up and have a desktop showing on your TV. You’ve got lots of different icons, but not many of them really seem to relate to things you’d frequently do – such as play music. While this isn’t the general ‘aim’ of the Pi, using it as an MP3 player is well within its scope – but like many things, it requires a little more setup out of the box. This tutorial will step through getting an easy-to-use, GUI (graphical user interface) MP3 player installed onto your system and to set it up in a way that you might be familiar with, either with Mac OS X or Windows systems – including being able…

Resources Synaptic: www.nongnyu.org/synaptic/ If you’re new to Linux, you may find using its built-in Apt package management tool a bit intimidating and confusing. The apt-get command is used for installing applications through the internet, connecting to the remote servers – called repositories – which house the programs as packages. But it is used through the terminal command prompt, which can be daunting, so we need an alternative: a desktop_environment interface method of getting hold of packages. This is where Synaptic comes in. Synaptic is a friendly-looking graphical interface to the apt-get terminal command which allows you to manage your_application_installations, and removals, through the already familiar desktop environment. Think of it as a kind of online shop where you can pick and choose the programs you want and have them downloaded…

Resources External hard drive: Any external hard drive or USB stick Powered USB hub: If you need extra USB ports Samba: www.samba.org Nowadays many of us have large music, video and photo collections, possibly all stored on a few external hard drives. If you want to dig out some old family films or listen to some music, you have to traipse upstairs, turn on the PC, plug in the hard drive and copy the media to a USB stick. Then go downstairs again and plug the stick into your Xbox, PS4 or hi-fi to access the media. Wouldn’t it be much better to just be able to access all your media on your network from one central location? NAS, or ‘network attached storage’, solutions have been available for a while,…

Resources Raspberry Pi Raspbian: www.raspberrypi.org/downloads Pi Camera Ashton’s picam module: https://github.com/ashtons/picam One of the most recent Raspberry Pi accessories is the tiny Pi Camera board – a small PCB with a camera sensor mounted to it that connects via a ribbon to the Raspberry Pi. Because of this, it is not exactly plug-and-play, so you will need to do some extra setup on your Raspberry Pi in order to get it to work properly. The Pi Camera has multiple functions, such as for time-lapse photography, using as a webcam, or even using as an optical sensor for a Pi-powered robot. Because it does not take up any USB slots, and draws very low power, it is possible for it to be a lot more versatile than a standard webcam is.…

Resources Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 with Raspbian Jessie Wi-Fi dongle: If using Raspberry Pi 2 Display: Official 7-inch touchscreen display recommended Phillips screwdriver Frame and/or stand: Suitable options for the official touchscreen display are available at Pimoroni and other dedicated Pi hardware and accessory suppliers Scripts: https://github.com/samuelclay/ Raspberry-Pi-Photo-Frame Digital picture frames that displayed a selection of your favourite photos were quite popular for a time, but are now seemingly available only as free gifts when signing up to magazine subscriptions. These tablet-like devices often made for interesting talking points, but were often let down by low memory, a poor user interface, or both. We don’t have to worry about either of those problems with this project. Here we are going to set up a Raspberry Pi with some photo-displaying…

Situated in the centre of the Studio is the Edit Panel. The panel contents relate to the currently selected sprite. Let’s start by selecting the jelly fish sprite, called Creature1, from the Sprite Collection area. At the top we have the sprite’s image and name, plus an indication of its current stage coordinates and direction. On the left are three animation control buttons. The top button will rotate the sprite, the second switches between left and right facing states, and the third turns animation off. Below are three Edit Panel tabs. The script tab is where block scripts are created. Here’s where we’ll drag and drop our blocks, snapping them together in various combinations. To change a sprite’s visual appearance we’ll use the ’Costumes’ tab. Each sprite can have one…

Resources Python 2: www.python.org/download IDLE: www.python.org/idle To complement our main Python feature, we’ve put together a tutorial to guide you through making a Rock, Paper, Scissors game in Python. The code applies the lessons from the feature and doesn’t require any extra Python modules to run. “Rock, Paper, Scissors is the perfect game to show off a little more about Python. It’s also easy to adapt and expand” Rock, Paper, Scissors is the perfect game to show off a little more about Python. Human input, comparisons, random selections and a whole host of loops are used in making a working version of the game. It’s also easy enough to adapt and expand as you see fit, adding rules and results, and even making a rudimentary AI if you wish. For…

The background class is pretty simple: all it has to do is create a surface, fill it with a green colour and then draw a white line down the middle in proportion to the display size. This means that the code itself is also pretty simple, so we’re only going to explain the less obvious parts.…

The skills that you will learn in this tutorial follow on from the previous one on programming a game on the Raspberry Pi, where we showed you how you can write a remake of the classic Pong game. Now that you are probably a little bit more comfortable with the way that game programming works, and Python in general, we are able to extend our original Pong remake by adding a menu, artificial intelligence and finally some interesting sound effects! So let’s get started and have a go. Before we begin The Raspbian operating system for the Raspberry Pi has now become the recommended distribution to use. It comes with Pygame installed by default, reliable sound output and a Python development environment called IDLE. As mentioned elsewhere in this book,…

The Pi is able to play high-quality audio. It has two options: a 3.5mm audio jack, and audio out over HDMI. These open up options of getting audio out through almost anything. A set of PC speakers will plug into the audio jack, but this is also what you’d use to plug in your headphones. At a slightly higher level, rather than using the analogue audio jack you could use the HDMI port – which means that the audio goes out digitally. As well as giving a higher quality of audio, it also means that you can run this into your TV or other HDMI advice, then out through your TVs optical connection which may go to your surround sound system or a whole bunch of other stuff. If you…